“Rachel Getting Married” Kym Ruining a Lovely Weekend
Nov 20th
Kym Ruining a Lovely Weekend
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED is a disturbing movie for a number of reasons, any one of which can ruin it for the audience.
First, the title doesn’t reflect the story. Yes, there is a character named Rachel, and she does get married at the climax of the weekend over which the story takes place, but she is not the main character and the story is not so much about her getting married as it is about her sister, Kym.
Second, Kym is played by Anne Hathaway, a stunningly beautiful actress, but here she has a short, unattractive hairdo, and she plays a drug addict who is allowed to leave her drug-rehab facility for the weekend in order to attend her sister’s wedding, but because she is a narcissistic addict, she is compelled to turn every conversation to be about her and to take over every gathering of people she intrudes upon.
Third, Rachel’s and Kym’s father is played by Bill Irwin, who had a previous career as an annoying mime, and everybody hates mimes. So, whenever he is on-screen, my eyes were immediately drawn to him, and I caught him always mugging for the camera, even when he had no lines and the scene isn’t about him.
Fourth, Kym did something in the past that tragically affected her family, and before we learn what it was, we get a teasing reference to it when she stops in a convenience store on the way home and the clerk says to her, “Hey, didn’t I see you on ‘Cops’?”
Fifth, every scene gives the impression that it could have been cut shorter and ended up better, particularly the one that consists of a competition on how best to load a dishwasher, which doesn’t seem to have any point at all until the very end of the scene.
Sixth, the musicians for the wedding ceremony are there for the entire weekend rehearsing their music, which the audience has to hear, too, and it just gets to be annoying.
Seventh, Debra Winger plays the mother of Kym and Rachel, she hasn’t made a movie for a number of years, and you might get a shock at how old she looks now.
And finally, the movie gives weddings a bad name.
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED would be more accurate as KYM RUINING A LOVELY WEEKEND.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Colorado Magazine November 17th – 23rd, 2008 – Blueprint Boulder
Nov 17th
It’s time now for Colorado Magazine with Jann Scott, Colorado’s number 1 TV talk show host. Week Jann goes to the Blueprint Boulder Grassroots Public Forum on how do we create the best city possible and what makes a great neighborhood. Then we also get a look at Blueprint Denver and the plans going on for the future of Denver, Colfax Ave. and the growth of our state as a whole. Stay tuned to see how developers are working to make us all happy on this educational episode of Colorado Magazine.
Find More Colorado Magazine Episodes Here
“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” Erotic Reimagining
Nov 13th
Erotic Reimagining
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO is not the worst film of the year, although it is probably down there with the worst, and yet it probably also has the worst title, which gives away half the plot right off the bat.
Written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, if it had just added “and Lived Happily Ever After” to the title, the whole plot would have been given away right there.
Yes, this is a typical “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again” story, although they met 20 years ago in first grade and have been friends ever since, they have been living together platonically since high school for the past 10 years, and they decide to make a porno film together in order to pay their bills.
What could go wrong, right? Or, to put it a better way, what could go right?
Well, everything, actually, on both counts.
You see, it is just before Thanksgiving, the utilities in their apartment have been turned off for nonpayment, Zack meets someone at their 10th-year high-school reunion who says he is earning $100,000 a year making and distributing his own porno movies, and so Zack decides they can succeed by making their own porno movie and selling it just to their 800 classmates alone.
When Miri asks why they can’t find a different way to make money like other people do, Zack says, “Because other people have options. And dignity.”
Zack calls on some friends for help and investment, they decide to do an “erotic reimagining” of a STAR WARS movie, and we get the standard movie montage of auditions for roles and wardrobe tests. Ho hum.
Then a major setback causes them to reimagine their reimagining, which is right out of Stale Screenwriting 101.
Everything that happens is telegraphed to the audience and then prolonged for way too long, but don’t go see it expecting to see anything coming close to a real porno movie–assuming that you have ever seen one before, of course.
However, do expect to see some nudity, at least one really offensive sight gag, and lots and lots of profanity. And then some more profanity.
ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO is an erotic reimagining of a lame romantic comedy–and of a porno movie, too.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
